DIGITAL FIELD GUIDE: WASPS (Order: Hymenoptera)
Polistes sp.
<-- from Key Location 14a
Identification features: Polistes is mostly yellow, the kind of wasp we often refer to as a yellow jacket. It is a common sight in the Gardens, and recognizable as a Vespid wasp by the characteristics of that group: wings held folded longitudinally when resting, V-shaped pronotum, and eyes notched along the inner margins. She is one-half to three-quarters of an inch long, and brightly colored, mostly yellow with varying amounts of brown and or reddish-amber. Males are smaller than females, have a yellow face, and hold their antenna curled at the tips.
Nesting habit and prey: Polistes is also known as a paper wasp—a name that refers to her nest building habit. Polistes are social wasps, unlike the other wasps seen in the Gardens. A convenient place to start the complex life cycle is with the adult female as she emerges in spring. She overwinters as an adult wasp, tucked down into crevices in wood or rock. When spring arrives, she emerges and begins building a nest. She collects woody plant fibers from stems and twigs which she chews and makes into paper. She begins the familiar paper nest we often see hanging from eaves. Having already mated before hibernation, she begins laying eggs as soon as the nest is ready. She hunts for caterpillars, chews them up, and feeds them to her young. As the young develop, new females emerge, and they begin to share the labor of nest-building, egg- laying, and tending the young. Males emerge, but they have just one duty—mating—then they die or are killed. At the end of the season, new females leave the paper nest, find a sheltered place to overwinter, and in the spring, the cycle starts over.
Polistes as pollinator: As adults, Polistes sustain themselves with flower nectar. Polistes has been observed nectaring on many plants including soapberry, sumacs, vauquelinia, Apache plume, and various composites.
